Peter Maundu:Meet a Kitui Farmer Rearing Over 2,000 Tortoises
71_year_old Peter Maundu ventured into tortoise rearing in 2005 after several failed attempts to cultivate crops.
In an interview on KU TV, Maundu said he started with 25 tortoises.
“The land is dry and there is no enough vegetation although I get food from my farm which borders a river,” he said.
As of 2019, 14 years since he started, Maundu was keeping over 2,000 tortoises in his farms in Kitui and Makueni Counties.
He keeps three species of tortoises namely hinge-back, pancake and the leopard.
Maundu exports the tortoises to reptile-eating countries such as the United States, China and Germany.
As a businessman exporting his produce to international countries, Maundu cited currency fluctuations as his main challenge.
He also mentioned untrustworthy clients, especially those who delay payments as his other challenge.
“Some times the market is also a challenge because I don’t deal with direct clients, I have to go through agents,” he said.
